Twin GRAIL spacecraft delivered to launch site

Posted by John McHaleDENVER, 25 May 2011. Lockheed Martin delivered the twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)spacecraft to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. At Kennedy the spacecraft will begin final testing and processing before launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on a United Launch Alliance Delta II Heavy launch vehicle later this year.The goal of the mission is to study the lunar interior from crust to core to uncover the moon's structure and comprehend its thermal evolution. The lunar orbiters will fly 30 miles above the moon in precision formation for the mission. The orbiters were transported on an Air Force C-17 transport plane in an environmentally controlled container. The Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission will fly nearly-identical spacecraft in tandem orbits around the moon for several months to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the GRAIL mission. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, is home to the mission's principal investigator Dr. Maria Zuber. The GRAIL mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. Launch management for the mission is the responsibility of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.More information about the GRAIL mission can be found at: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/grail and http://www.lockheedmartin.com/grail